100 Drabble Challenge
by Nonny The Anon One
Summary: The 100 drabble challenge. Varying in ratings from K to T.
1. Smile

**Credit goes to Bluemyst19. I swiped the idea from her. She swiped the idea from someone else. I'm trying to overcome writer's block and apathy so hopefully this will energize me!**

Smile

Sam shook her head in disgust as she sat on the floor beside Danny. He gave her a sideways look then returned his attention to the movie.

Sam made a snorting sound and Danny looked at her again. Tucker, who was sitting on the couch shoved a handful of popcorn into his mouth and Danny returned his attention to the movie.

"Stupid!" Sam finally spat.

"What's stupid?" Tucker asked before Danny could pose the question himself.

"Christine!" Sam replied. "She's stupid! Stupid! AGH!"

"Oookay," Tucker said. "So you hate the movie?"

"If you hate Phantom of the Opera so much," Danny asked in confusion. "Why are you making us watch it?"

"I like the movie," Sam clarified then sighed. "I just hate Christine! I hate her!"

Danny blinked at Sam who was becoming more animated in her disgust by the moment. "Why?" he finally asked.

Sam reached behind her and stole the bowl of popcorn from Tucker, shoved a few pieces in her mouth then threw the rest at the screen with a growl of disgust.

"I would have stayed with the Phantom," she answered. Danny smiled.


	2. Flowers

Flowers

They were once white, but now had withered to brown. Crumpled little white flowers, in a vase. The wind blew them but they were almost unmoving. They were stubborn like the woman who had placed them at the gray gravestone.

She sat on the ground, tracing the letters on the gravestone as her eyes blurred with tears. She sighed shakily then pulled a book out of her bag.

"Where were we?" she asked as she flipped the pages then cleared her throat. She began reading aloud, her forehead pressed against the gravestone as her voice rose and fell in the poetic rhythm of the book she was reading.

"Sam," he said as he appeared beside her. She paused a moment in her reading, but then carried on.

"It's going to start snowing soon. Let's go some place warm." He continued as he knelt beside her.

"Not until I'm finished," she said.

Danny sighed then looked at the headstone. He hated it. He hated reading it. He hated that Tucker was gone. It seemed all wrong. It was wrong.

He pulled the flowers from the vase and replaced them with fresh red roses. This was their ritual. Once a week. Sam read to him, and Danny changed the flowers.


	3. Out Cold

Out Cold

He was snoring. Loudly. She nudged him with the toe of her shoe and frowned. What was she supposed to do?

Jazz bent down and picked up the broken pieces of glass around his head, then checked for wounds. He had a hard head. There were no cuts.

She looked down at her father laying in the hall. He really shouldn't have been sneaking around the house late at night.

Jazz bit her lip then checked her father's pocket. Yup just as she suspected, filled with fudge.

"Mom!" Jazz finally called. "I knocked Dad on the head with a vase. He's out cold"


	4. Cat

Cat

Tucker wasn't able to move. All he could do was stand against the wall and pray that Danny was near by.

It was staring him down. It's red eyes glittering dangerously as it licked it's whiskers, having already devoured several students from Casper High. Tucker shivered as he pressed himself against the wall. He was thankful the giant ghost cat was sated or he'd probably had been dead instantly, and the possibility that it had eaten Sam was not lost on him.

He swallowed hard as he took the hat off his head and held it to his chest almost protectively. His PDA beeped in his pocked and the cat cocked its head to the side in curiosity.

"Good kitty," Tucker whispered shakily in the most placating tone possible. "You don't want to eat me. I think I might be poisonous. Yeah I'm poisonous. Like um…like that plant that's poisonous. What's it called? Catnip!" The cat's ears flicked forward in interest and Tucker's eyes widened.

"No no!" Tucker shouted frantically. "Not catnip! No I am not like catnip! I'm like that other stuff. You know that bad stuff that's bad for you. You know the Christmas flower.." His mind raced but he couldn't remember what it was called.

The cat moved forward slightly and Tucker shouted out, "Poinsettia!" The cat, stunned at Tucker's sudden outburst, stopped.

"I'm poisonous like a poinsettia!" Tucker began. "You know the Christmas plant with red flowers, though last year my mom had one with white petals. They're really ugly." The cat sat down on it's hind legs and continued to stare unblinkingly at Tucker who kept talking.

"Not that I'm ugly like a poinsettia," Tucker continued. "I kinda like to think that I'm pretty handsome, but I'm dangerous. You know kinda deceptive in my abilities, and so if you eat me, I'll kill you!"

The cat licked his chops again and Tucker swallowed hard. "Please don't eat me," he begged. "I really am much too cute to die. I'm more like a…philodendron! You know they're poisonous right?"

The cat jumped up suddenly and Tucker was sure he was done for. He cowered away from the beast and then he was aware of a dog barking and the cat hissing. He opened one eye and saw, standing in the entrance of the alley, his savior. Cujo, the ghost dog.

The cat's tail fluffed up and it hissed again, then jumped over the building Tucker was cowering against. Cujo barked twice then took off after the ghost cat.

He stayed against the wall until Sam peeked her head around the corner. "He's here Danny," she called.

"I thought you were dead!" Tucker cried in relief.

"We thought you were dead!" Danny yelled as he floated into the alley. He paused and gave Tucker a strange look then covered his mouth as he chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Sam asked as she walked forward then burst into laughter.

Tucker narrowed his eyes at his friends. "Don't laugh!" he demanded. "It's not funny. You'd pee yourself too if you were almost eaten by a ghost cat!"

Danny worked his face into a serious expression. "I'm sorry I couldn't get here faster," he told Tucker.

"Not me," Sam said as she snapped a picture then smiled. "This will be a good one for the scrap book." She gave Tucker a devilish look then walked away. Danny gave him an apologetic look then followed after her.

"No one got eaten," Danny told Tucker gently. "It's a ghost cat. It couldn't really harm anyone."

"Oh man," Tucker said as he looked down at the puddle around his feet. "I'm never going to live this down. I hate that darned cat!"


	5. 67 Percent

67 Percent

Sixty seven. Half of one thirty four. Sixty seven. It was a relatively small number, slightly more than a minute. Sixty seven percent. It could have been a D a near failing grade.

Danny took a breath. That left thirty three percent. Sixty seven percent was good Sam told him. Sixty seven percent was better than half, but all Danny could see was the thirty three percent.

"I don't know why you're so upset," Tucker said as he put down the paper.

"Thirty three," Danny said pointedly.

Sam put her hand on Danny's shoulder. "You're approval rating is up to sixty seven percent!" she said. "It's gone up since your last battle."

"But it was at eighty five before Vlad messed it all up," Danny told her as he dug his hands into his hair as he leaned his elbow on the table. He'd worked hard to earn the approval of the citizen's of Amity Park and all he got was sixty seven percent. He was bummed.


	6. Keeping A Secret

Keeping a Secret

She knew. She knew everything. Her curiosity had gotten the better of her and she figured it out. It was almost instinctual, the knowing. She looked at him one day after staring at a picture of Danny Phantom all night long and it hit her. They were one in the same.

She told herself she was crazy. How could that loser be the town hero. He hung out with weirdos and Paulina was totally in love with him, but she hated him as Fenton. Paulina thought Fenton was one of the biggest losers on the planet, stationed right next to Tucker and Sam who both ran a close second for freakishness.

She knew how to keep a secret. No one knew she was a math genius. No one knew she studied philosophy. No one knew the inner workings of her heart and mind. Everyone saw what she wanted them to see, a vapid shallow girl in love with shopping and popularity. She liked it that way.

She understood Danny completely. She knew what it was like to not be what people expected. She watched him covertly and managed to protect him a few times. She masked her interest with disgust and acknowledged that at some level, she was obsessed with him as an intellectual oddity. She loved that he didn't know that she knew. She loved that Sam and Tucker had no idea as they walked around with their sly smiles and secret glances at each other, that someone they'd never expect, knew their secret and understood their games. She loved the power she held in simply knowing, but she'd never tell a soul, that would ruin everything. Star liked keeping secrets.


	7. Precious Treasure

Precious Treasure

Maddie smiled as she held her two hour old grandson in her arms. She looked at his small little fingers as they grasped her own then looked into his bright blue eyes.

"I have so much to teach you my little love," she cooed as she brought the baby's downy head covered with fluffy black hair, to her lips and kissed him softly. "I'm going to teach you to be an expert ghost hunter just like your Grandpa Jack."

Danny sat on the bed next to his wife and smiled as he watched his mother with the baby. He was, at this moment, happier than he ever had been in his life.

Sam leaned against her husband and closed her eyes. She was exhausted and really needed to get some rest, hopefully she could sleep a little easier now that the baby had been born, and for all intents and purposes seemed to be normal. Her eyelids grew heavy as she watched Maddie sitting with the baby.

Jazz smiled tenderly as she leaned over her mother and peered at her nephew. "You're not going to infect him with all the ghost craziness are you, Mom?" she asked softly as she touched the baby's tiny foot and examined his toes. She couldn't believe she was an aunt or that Danny and Sam were now parents…all before her. It made her a little sad and jealous.

"Infect!" Jack almost boomed, but softened his voice. "Ghost hunting runs in his veins! Of course he's going to be infected. He's going to be the best ghost hunter the world has ever seen."

"Oh kill me now," Sam said softly to Danny who chuckled. Jazz turned and looked at Sam for a moment then frowned as she noticed her energy waning.

"I think we should leave now," Jazz suggested softly. She stood and took her father's arm and began pulling him from the room. They both congratulated Danny and Sam then looked at Maddie, who remained seated in the rocking chair, holding the newborn who had just drifted to sleep, before leaving the room.

Maddie sat with a charmed expression on her face as she smiled down at her grandson. She sighed heavily and looked up then looked a little sheepishly, knowing she could leave but obviously not being able to bear letting go of her grandson.

"Do you want me to take him?" Danny asked as he stood. Sam yawned and laid back on the bed and closed her eyes.

Maddie sighed wistfully, she really wasn't ready to relinquish the child, but could tell Sam needed to rest.

"You can stay," Sam offered sleepily. "If you want." Danny paused and looked at his mother who had started to stand. She smiled softly and nodded her head then relaxed as she cuddled the baby in her arms.

"Thank you," Maddie told her daughter in law and her son. Sam drifted to sleep and Danny went to sit by his mother and stare with her in wonder, at their precious treasure.


	8. Drowning

Drowning

Sam had never considered her combat boots to be a liability. They'd always been a strength. Training weights, clunky when she ran, but ultimately a conditioning tool, if she could run fast with heavy combat boots on, then she could move at hear light speed with running shoes on her feet. Her a weapon, a fashion statement, a torture device. She loved her boots and would have never in a million years believed they would send her to a watery doom.

Everyone's attention had been focused on Technus and Danny, so no one noticed right away when a piece of the ghosts technology flew toward Sam. No one noticed her skidding off the pier and falling into the water, and no one heard her cry out for help.

Keeping her head afloat was impossible as her boots weighed her down. She kicked in the water, trying to tread, but her legs grew tired of trying and her shoes weighed her down. She tried to reach the pier, but she couldn't make head way as the tide moved her away. She tried to scream for help but her mouth was filled with water and nothing came out. Her next option was to remove the boots, but she couldn't. Everything around her shifted and began to go dark. She gave one more desperate struggle to break to the surface of the water before the darkness encompassed her completely.


	9. Silence

Silence

Jazz sat at the table looking at everyone expectantly. She wore a smile of joy, as she looked at the stunned faces around her.

"Jazz, Sweetie," her mother said. "You can't be serious?"

"Maybe she's been overshadowed by a ghost!" Jack suggested as he leaned toward Jazz menacingly.

"I promise," she said quickly as she held up one hand to still her father. "I've thought about this, and I think this is the best thing for me." She looked at Danny a moment, he was sitting beside her looking at her blankly, unable to comprehend what she was telling them.

"I know this is all comes out of left field, but this is what I want. I'm tired of trying to be something I'm not. Now I want to be something I am!"

Her family could say nothing, they just watched her in stunned silence as she dropped out of college, and joined the circus, as a clown.


	10. Breathe Again

Breathe Again

Sam wasn't breathing when they pulled her out of the icy water. Her skin was cold and clammy and they yelled at each other for a moment that there wasn't time to debate. Jazz and Tucker fell to their knees.

"She's not breathing," Jazz said frantically as she tilted Sam's head back. Tucker looked up at the battle Danny was fighting with Technus. He looked back down at Sam's pale, slack face as Jazz started first aid. He suddenly felt like everything was moving in slow motion as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed 911.

Each ring of the phone seemed to take forever as Tucker watched Jazz calmly trying to resuscitate Sam. Danny even seemed to move in slow motion as he fought Technus. Tucker hoped this was only a nightmare. A really bad nightmare.

The 911 operator answered the phone and everything seemed to speed up too fast for Tucker to get a grasp on what was going on. He told the operator where they were, what happened, what Jazz was doing, was it working?

"Breathe!" Jazz shouted as she pounded on Sam's chest! "Breathe." The world twisted and turned and filled with flashing lights and sirens, deafening Tucker. Jazz resumed trying to help Sam. Danny caught Technus. Sam laid cold on the pier and didn't breathe again.


	11. In The Storm

In The Storm

Flying up through the clouds, Danny smiled then allowed himself to drift in the mist smiling in safe tangibility as lightening flashed all around illuminating him with it's eerie bright blue light.

The lightening would have burned through him, had he dared to manifest himself as a physical being, but since he existed only vaguely in the physical world, he felt a slight electric zing as the lightening bolts flashed through him.

It was almost like a childhood dream, flying in the middle of a storm, riding the current, living in the lightening. He could have slept like this, with the thunder vibrating through him with deafening crashes.

Danny flirted on the edge of life and death. All he had to do was let himself become tangible, shift into human mode and he would end up as nothing more than ashes drifting with the rain and scattered to the winds.

He never told anyone how he loved to float in the storm, it was a welcoming calm in the chaos of his life.


	12. No Time

No Time

It had run out on him. Time. He, like everyone else, thought he had plenty of time. In some ways, he felt like he had more time than other people, he had ghost powers and friends in high places. In the long run he had the same amount of time as the next person, and his friends in high places too often took the high road.

He floated what seemed like miles away from the scene, thermos holding Technus in hand, and everything ground to a halt, except time.

Jazz was doing chest compressions, Tucker was on his cell phone and Danny just, floated there. Watching.

He was out of time. He wanted to tell Sam so many times that he loved her, but he put it off. In the moments when he felt most compelled to tell her, there was no time.

Usually, just before a fight with a ghost he wanted to tell her, just in case something happened to him. In his visions, it always happened to him, never her. In his fevered nightmares, he was always able to come to her rescue. Even in his subconscious he was the hero, and he would never let anything happen to Tucker, Jazz, or Sam…especially Sam.

He didn't understand what had happened and why he hadn't realized she needed him. Had he become too cocky? Had he become too complacent? It was just Technus. It was an easy fight A B C, 1 2 3. Simple. It took him less than fifteen minutes to wrestle the self proclaimed master of Technology out of the machinery he'd taken over and into the Fenton Thermos.

Danny watched from the outside the paramedics arrive on the scene. Jazz and Tucker moved out of the way. They stood separately, watching with solemn expressions. He couldn't move.

He would have gone to her, but there was no time. Everything happened in such a flurry of activity. Time had slowed but it moved so quickly and before he knew it she was gone, taken away in the ambulance with flashing lights. He would have gone to her, but there was no time.


	13. Dying

Dying

Whoever said dying is easy and life is hard, never died. Dying was very hard, as Sam was learning. Dying was painful, if not physically than emotionally.

Our spirits, she learned are bound to those we love, to those who love us. Death changes those bonds, it's like a bad tooth extraction with no pain killers. The ripping, the tearing the rending of the soul from life, was the most painful thing she'd ever experienced or even imagined.

She was first ripped from her family, the connection severed with what seemed like a dull knife sawing through her heart. Her connection with Tucker didn't want to give and she fought hard to keep those lines from breaking. They frayed and burned and she would have screamed if she had physical form, the pain was maddening and eventually she lost the battle.

Two threads remained. One golden. One silver. One was her tie to life, and the other Danny. She feared the severing of both and she pleaded to the silent and invisible surgeons excising her soul from her living form to leave the threads alone, to have mercy.

The golden thread binding her to Danny thrummed and vibrated and began to glow an eerie ectoplasmic green and she cried out in horror and agony. She focused all her energy all her life force into preserving that tie. Even after the silver thread that bound her soul to her body snapped, she clung to the gold and green glowing rope. She should have been carried off to the white light in the distance, but instead she was held fast and was fortified by the one thing keeping her balanced between life and death.

In the end, she was more stubborn than death and her will to live was stronger than the pull of the afterlife. It was debated on whether or not to cast her into the limbo of the ghost zone or reestablish her connection to life.

In the end, it was the green glowing golden rope which decided her fate. Life or limbo. Dying wasn't easy.


	14. Expectations

Expectations

Danny wasn't about to give up. He wouldn't let Sam die. Even though Jazz warned him there was little hope and the situation looked grim. Even though she told Danny that she didn't believe Sam would make it to the hospital alive, Danny refused to give up.

He made his way to the Ghost Zone. He found Clockwork. He cried, begged, threatened, bargained and pleaded to no avail. The keeper of time could not be moved.

"The decision is out of my hands," Clockwork had told Danny.

"Take me instead of her!" Danny demanded.

Clockwork sighed as he shifted his form from young to old. "You seem to think that I can hold sway between life and death."

"You've done it before!" Danny yelled his heart filling with rage and panic. "Who knows how many times you've done it. Why can't you do it now?"

"Meddling in the proper timeline is not something I can treat with a cavalier attitude," Clockwork replied calmly. "The cards have been set. This is something I cannot change."

Clockwork watched patiently as Danny raged and roared. He understood the boy's agony, sympathized with his plight, but his hands were tied. Even so, if he changed things for him now, Danny would come to him every times things didn't go as he wished and the demands would never end, as hard at is it was, the keeper of time was forced to deny Danny his wish.

"I apologize," Clockwork said as he gave Danny a courtly bow. "But I am simply unable to comply with your request."

Danny's shoulders dropped and he hung his head. He muttered something which sounded like, "Thanks for nothing."

"I'm sorry," Clockwork told him as Danny turned his back an began to walk slowly from the great hall in which Clockwork resided.

Danny turned and looked at Clockwork one last time. "If you cannot live up to my expectations," he said. "Don't expect me to live up to yours."


	15. Seeing Red

Seeing Red

Danny looked at Sam as she lay on her stomach, writing furiously as she studied for their history mid-term. He caught himself sighing shakily as she bit her lip and moved her hair behind her ear. Looking away, at something or someone else only made the butterflies in his stomach worse as he made eye contact with Tucker, who wore an expression somewhere between amused and smug. Danny felt his cheeks begin to burn at the knowing look Tucker sent him and Danny resisted the urge to throw his pen at the techno geek for being too observant and for calling him on his ever growing crush on their mutual best friend and for admitting his own. Danny's stomach burned, twisted and knotted as he recalled Tucker's words earlier that week.

"You need to decide what you want, Danny," Tucker had said. "Because if you don't make your move, someone else will." Tucker had made it quite apparent who that someone else was too, and as upset as Danny was at the knowledge that Tucker too harbored feelings for Sam, he said he couldn't hate his friend for it.

Tucker's smiled faded slightly as he watched Danny turn his attention back to his studies. He looked at Sam, who was completely oblivious to any kind of exchange between her friends. He'd lied to Danny about his feelings for Sam. He looked back at Danny who was watching Sam with an expression Tucker interpreted as longing.

"You know what guys," Tucker said as he closed his book with a loud snap. "I think I need to get out of here before my mind turns to mush. I'll see you tomorrow at school."

Sam sat up and looked at Tucker in alarm. She'd already had a discussion with him about leaving her alone with Danny. She was afraid that without the buffer between them, that she'd let something about her feelings slip. He looked back at her with an almost sad expression, trying hard to hide the mischievous sparkle in his eyes.

"Do you have to go?" Sam asked plaintively. "We can take a study break! Watch a movie, order pizza or something. Just don't go Tuck!"

Tucker didn't miss the green eyed monster glaring at him from the spot where Danny was sitting as Sam begged him to stay. He shook his head as he finished putting his books in his back pack and stood. Sam stood too and practically threw herself at Tucker, frantic for him to stay, to not leave her alone with Danny.

Tucker laughed a moment as Sam wrapped her arms around his shoulders in an effort to make him sit and then he froze and swallowed hard. He moved his gaze from Danny's anger filled red eyed stare to Sam's pleading amused purple eyes.

"I really have to go," Tucker told Sam, hoping his expression would convey his need.

"Oh," Sam said as she let go of Tucker. She gave him a confused look and then turned to Danny who quickly looked down at the book he was reading.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Tucker told her then waved to Danny and left like the hounds of hell were chasing him.


	16. Tears

Tears

The night had burnt itself out in bitter tears of grief with the dawn fading into an ashy half lit morning. Danny felt hung over as he lay in bed and worried over Sam's fate not knowing if she were alive or dead.

Sam's mother had chased everyone from the hospital, so they knew nothing. Maddie called them impossibly cruel. A flight to Sam's house, later that night, found it empty and dark. He contemplated going to the hospital. They wouldn't be able to keep him away, but then part of him didn't want to know.

Danny laid in bed and imagined everything was all right. Sam was fine. She was asleep in her room and everything else was a bad nightmare. Danny believed so hard that he dreamed it, but the tear stained pillow he woke up to was evidence that he could only fool himself so far, deep down he knew.

Jazz knocked on his door the moment she heard him stirring. She crawled beside him onto his bed and wrapped her arms around him. Danny did his best not to break down in tears, afraid of what Jazz had to say.

"Have you heard anything?" he finally asked, feeling fearful. If Sam was all right, Jazz would have put him out of his misery instead of sitting on the bed holding him, obviously searching for the right way to break it to him. There was no right way.

Jazz took a deep breath. "Mom called the hospital." She stopped trying to buy herself some time.

"And?" Danny asked impatiently, through not really wanting to hear. Jazz sighed and Danny realized she was stalling. He started getting scared.

"I just wanted to prepare you and warn you," Jazz started, then looked up at the door as it opened. She walked in slowly looking pale and tired and Danny was out of his bed like a shot. Jazz looked down at the floor then closed her eyes.

"You're all right!" Danny sighed in relief as he held her close. Sam said nothing as she returned his embrace, ghostly tears running down her face.


	17. Abandoned

Abandoned

Vlad Masters sat in his study reading the news paper, just as he always every evening at six. After reading the paper he would eat a light supper, work in the lab for a few hours then head to bed. His life was mundane and routine for the most part. He wouldn't admit outright that he was lonely, but he was. He was incredibly lonely. He considered that perhaps he needed a vacation.

The ringing of the door bell had him up like a shot. This was something new. A break in the monotony of his daily life. He opened the door and frowned. No one was there. His eyebrows furrowed and then he heard it, a soft bubbling coo.

Vlad looked down toward his feet and met the soft brown eyes of a rosy cheeked little baby, swaddled in a blue blanket, laying in a tan wicker basket. His heart thumped heavily as he knelt down and took the note attached to the basket.

He read the brief message quickly, one eye on the paper the other on the four month old baby, whose name was Katherine, Kitty for short. Vlad smiled wryly at the child's name then scanned the landscape, looking for the person who'd left the bundle on his door step. He narrowed his eyes briefly then picked up the baby, basket and all and brought her into the house, not even trying to mask his delighted smile.


	18. Love

Love

For possibly the first time in his life, Vlad was in love. It wasn't the grand romantic love of a million sappily written novels, but the fatherly love a parent held for his child. It warmed his heart and filled him with a joy he'd never quite imagined he'd attain.

He rocked the infant in his arms with a blissful smile on his face as he gave her the morning bottle he'd prepared. He smoothed her blonde hair and let her hand curl around his fingers.

Kitty had been in his life for two weeks and he couldn't imagine a time without her. All of his projects, his plans, his dastardly plots against Daniel, lay where he left them, gathering dust.

It had been difficult at first, learning to care for the child, but he seemed to have been born to fatherhood, he was intelligent and was able to adapt quickly to the life of being a single parent, and Kitty was a easy going baby, not prone to tears, even if she had spit up on his expensive Italian suits several times before he learned guard his shoulder with a blanket.

He spent every waking moment in contemplation of the child. He feared calling her his. He feared that her true parents would come for her. He feared losing the little light that had brightened his dreary life. He couldn't imagine how or why she'd been abandoned, but he knew he could never let her go without a fight.

Vlad loved her and made plans in his mind. Someday, he decided. Kitty would rule the world.


	19. Stripes

Stripes

When he first woke up, he thought Jazz had snuck into his room and attacked him with a green marker, but no. The stripes weren't only on his face, hands, arms and feet. They were everywhere, and they glowed.

Danny couldn't say he felt very well either, he was sick and he couldn't transform into ghost mode without feeling sicker. Even worse, he couldn't explain to his mother why he couldn't go to school, because how was he going to explain the green stripes?

A call to Sam had her on the way over with a solution. Well, not a solution, a quick fix, one that Danny refused at first.

Sam smiled as she dabbed foundation onto Danny's skin and he gave her a forlorn look.

"I hate being a half ghost," he told her.

"I know," she replied softly as she finished hiding the marks with make up, then frowned as she looked at his neck.

"What's wrong?" Danny asked as he read the expression on her face.

"It looks like someone gave you more than a few hickies," she said as she blushed. "But these ones on your neck are weird and they bleed through the make up…."

Danny jumped up and looked in the mirror than smiled half roguishly and with a little embarrassment at Sam. "Want to tell people we've been making out?" he asked

Sam rolled her eyes.


	20. Advertisment

Advertisement

Danny, Sam and Tucker were sitting at the floor all gaping at the television in horror as they listened to the commercial they'd only heard about, but they'd, or at least Danny, had never seen.

"You too can be Amity Parks hero ghost! The new Danny Phantom remote control flying action figure! Available for two easy payments of nineteen ninety-five! You must be eighteen years or older to call."

Tucker shook his head. "Someone needs an attorney!"

"It doesn't even look like you," Sam said absently. "And it doesn't even fly, it just vibrates."

"How do you know?" Tucker asked in a teasing tone.

Sam smiled. "I bought one."

"You what?" Danny shrieked in horror. "Why?"

"I had to see if it was worth getting upset about," Sam told him defensively. "I mean if it was well made…." She paused. It was obvious Danny was upset.

"And now she sleeps with it under her pillow," Tucker announced then smiled happily as Danny sent Sam, who was now a deep shade of crimson, a questioning look.

Sam cleared her throat as she looked down at her feet and Danny blushed too. "Like I said. It doesn't work. You should sue."


	21. Pen and Paper

Pen and Paper

Littered across the room were dozens of wadded up pieces of paper. Sitting at the desk was Danny, chewing on a pen as he looked at the wall. His eyes scanned the posters he'd pinned up, some years ago. Rockets, diagrams of space craft, pictures of planets, distant galaxies, the moon.

His mind felt empty as he gazed at the wall. How was he supposed to write an essay on his past accomplishments and his future aspirations? He couldn't write about how he defeated Pariah Dark, his future evil self, Technus, Skulker, Desiree, Ember and Vlad. His biggest accomplishments were things he could never put on paper.


	22. Rejection

Rejection

It was sitting on the table waiting for her. One legal sized white envelope. Addressed to Jasmine Fenton from Stanford University. She stood in the door way of the kitchen a look of illness on her face.

The kitchen was empty, and for that Jazz was thankful as she took a deep breath, walked forward then sat down and stared at the envelope. She knew what it was. Everyone knew the drill. Acceptance letters were big packets. Rejection letters were small envelopes. There was no doubt in her mind that this was a rejection letter.

She'd received two yesterday. Two shocking rejection letters. One from Yale, the other from Harvard. She leaned forward and put her head on the table, trying desperately not to cry.

Her whole life was about her grades. Her academic career was her identity. She was Jazz Fenton, honor student. She was at the top of her class, Valedictorian. How could she be rejected by every school she applied to.

"Jazz?" Danny asked softly as he walked into the kitchen. He sat down at the table, but she didn't lift her head.

"Go away," Jazz sniffled. "I don't feel like talking right now."

"I saw the rejection letter," Danny told her softly. "And there's something else."

Jazz lifted her head, wiped away her tears and looked at her brother, who looked back worriedly. He handed her a huge white envelope and her eyes widened. Danny sat quietly as he watched Jazz's eyebrows furrow in confusion.

"I never applied to the University of Wisconsin, Madison," she told Danny as she shook her head and handed the thick packet back to him.

"I talked to Mom and Dad," Danny told her as he looked at the envelope then put it on the table. "They didn't apply for you."

"Then who did?" Jazz asked.

Danny grimaced then took a deep breath. "Vlad," he answered. Jazz's expression turned from confusion to anger.

"I'm going to kill him!" she growled as she picked up the rejection letter from Stanford and threw it across the room. "And I'm not going to the University of Wisconsin!" She then stood and stormed out of the kitchen, then pounded up the stairs and into her room.


	23. Introduction

Introduction

Tucker's palms were sweating as he sat in a creaky metal chair in the crowded auditorium. He adjusted his hat, then his glasses and stood as he was called.

He felt like he was going to be sick as he made his way up the stage and to the podium where he looked at the old microphone with the ratty black cover and sighed. He could tell that it was a plunger coil microphone and he began to vaguely wonder about the sound system it was connected to.

Tucker had noted as he'd sat and waited for his turn to speak, that there was a lot of reverberation from the speakers, and that sometimes, if whomever was talking, touched the microphone that it would squeal slightly with feedback.

He had calmed himself by mentally rewiring the audio system, using a the latest speakers and replacing several wires and connectors. It wouldn't even cost much, just a little tweaking here and there and the whole system would be improved.

He cleared his throat as he looked out into the audience. He could see Danny and Sam standing against the wall, looking worried for him. He knew they were afraid he was going to run.

"Hello," he said then cleared his voice one more time as he closed his eyes. "My name is Tucker. Tucker Foley and I am a techno geek." He opened his eyes and looked to the back of his room. Danny was holding up his thumb in support and Sam was looking down at the floor, he could tell she was trying not to cry.

"Welcome Tucker," the crowd said and Tucker walked down from the podium, feeling shaky, but better than he had in a very long time.


	24. Two Roads

Two Roads

"You took the wrong road!" Sam told Danny as she consulted the map in her lap.

"No I didn't!" Danny told her firmly. "I took the right road."

"You should have taken the left," Sam told him. "The guy at the gas station told me to take a left."

"But Tucker's GPS said right," Danny replied. "When in doubt, I always trust the techno geek."

Sam looked at the map then looked at Danny for a minute. "Okay," she began as she folded up the map. "Let me put it to you this way…"

Danny looked at Sam a moment then returned his eyes to the road. She smiled at him sweetly then looked back at Tucker, who had his face buried in his PDA.

"Say you have a choice of two roads," Sam started. "At the end of one road you find a techno geek in a red hat, absorbed in his PDA, singing off key at the top of his lungs."

"Hey!" Tucker said as he put down the PDA. "I haven't sang once on this trip!" Sam raised her eyebrows.

"Okay, last night," Tucker said. "But the shower doesn't count."

Sam took a deep breath then turned back to Danny. "The second road has me at the end of it?"

"Dressed in a pink negligee?" Tucker asked and Danny snickered

Sam lifted her foot and showed her boot to Tucker. "See this?" she asked coolly. "It's going to be shoved down your throat if you ever make a comment like that again."

Tucker smiled and returned his attention back to the PDA whispering something about trying to advise her on how to get Danny's attention. Sam looked down at the map.

"At the end of the other road," she continued as she closed her eyes. "Is me…and I'm waiting to tell you that I love you, but I can't say it if you never show up." Danny took his foot off the accelerator and Tucker opened his mouth in shock. The car slowed and Danny looked at Sam for a minute.

"Can you repeat that?" Danny asked, his heart racing in his ears as the car came to a stop.

Sam opened her eyes and looked up at Danny, a blush stinging her cheeks. "You need to turn around and take the other road," she told him softly. "Please?"

Danny said nothing more as he turned the car around then made the turn Sam requested.

"Master manipulator," Tucker accused. Sam didn't respond, she simply looked down at the map, relieved that they were finally headed in the right direction.


	25. Rated

Rated

Sam sat on a bench beside Jazz. Neither girl was talking. Both looked grim and a little more than upset.

"Who do you think started this?" Sam finally asked as she scanned the paper in hand.

Jazz shook her head. "Considering I'm number one the list," she began. "It wasn't Danny."

Sam nodded her head. She hoped it wasn't Danny, or if it was then she knew where he stood considering she was number twenty two on the list. She didn't care about being rated number twenty two on the list of Casper High's hot girls. She would have rather been at the bottom of the list, but she couldn't help but worry. What if Danny saw her as twenty two, it bothered her more than she wanted to admit. Her only comfort was that Jazz was in the top five. Danny would never put her in the top five let alone number one.

"Sam!" Tucker called as he came running up to her and Jazz in the park. He looked a little wild eyed. He stopped in front of her, panting breathlessly, sparing Jazz a brief look.

"Have you seen my back pack?" he asked.

"No," Sam answered. "I'm not your keeper, Tuck. Sorry." He cursed under his breath. Then looked at the paper in Sam's hand. He went impossibly white.

"What's that?" he practically squeaked.

Sam raised one eyebrow and smiled slightly. "It's a list rating the hotness of the girls of Casper High," Sam answered slowly, watching Tucker swallow hard.

"Oh," Tucker said almost casually. "Where did you get it?"

"It was posted on the bulletin board near the lunch room," Jazz answered. "I ripped it down before too many people could read it."

Tucker nodded his head. "Can I see?" he asked as he held out his hand.

"Sure," Sam said slowly as she watched Tucker's face.

"This is horrible," Tucker began in an overly outraged tone. "You know what? I think I know who did this! I'm going to go give him a piece of my mind." He shoved the paper into his pocket then turned and ran away.

"Who is it?" Jazz called, but Tucker didn't answer. Jazz looked at Sam who was now grinning.

"I wonder who it is," Jazz said.

"I have no clue," Sam replied as she continued to smile. "No clue at all!"


	26. Blood

Blood

He watched in almost hypnotized horror as blood oozed from his hand. Dark green and glowing with red threading through it. He looked up at his mother and father who were both watching with unreadable expressions on their faces. The blood fell to the floor like huge red and green raindrops and Danny began to feel sick.

"D-Danny," Maddie finally cried as she rushed forward, wrapping his hand in a dish towel. She held his hand above his head for a moment as she forced him to sit. He was dizzy, but it wasn't from blood loss, it was from shock and fear.

He'd been washing dishes. Glasses. Stupid glasses that his hands fit in perfectly a month ago, but he had grown and so had his hands and when he stuck his hand and the wash cloth into the glass, it shattered, slicing into his hand.

Maddie waited a moment the placed Danny's hand on the table. She ignored the green ectoplasm as she carefully removed the glass from the cuts then cleaned the wound and looked at it sternly. She looked up at Danny who regarded her fearfully.

"Jack," Maddie told her husband. "Start the R.V. he's going to need stitches."

"No!" Danny cried breathlessly. He'd been hurt much worse than this during ghost fights he knew he didn't need stitches, it was pointless.

"Danny," his mother chastised. "You're better off…" she paused as she looked down at her son's hand which had stopped bleeding.

"Please," Danny said as he pulled his hand away and cradled it to his chest. "I'll be fine." He stood and made his way upstairs. He didn't look back. He just ran. Hoping his parents would just let this slide.


	27. I Can't

I Can't

Danny couldn't sleep, which was unusual. He couldn't sleep because Tucker and Sam were sleeping over. Well, no. Sam was sleeping over. He'd impulsively given her his bed. She'd looked at him strangely when he offered it. She usually slept on the floor in her sleeping bag. Tucker teased him about his chivalry and Sam got angry and quizzed him about the reason why he was giving up his bed for her when he never had before.

"It's not because I'm a girl is it?" she quizzed as she narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Danny.

"No," Danny replied as he shook his head vigorously . "It's just we had that ghost fight and…and I thought you might be sore and need the bed."

"What about me?" Tucker asked plaintively.

"You didn't take the hit Sam did," Danny answered coolly.

"Fine," Sam said as she threw Danny his pillows. "I'll take the bed. I have no qualms about sleeping in comfort."

With that they went to sleep, or at least Tucker and Sam did. Danny lay on the floor listening to both of them breath for awhile, then he sat up and looked at Sam. He moved so he could put his chin on the edge of the bed and watched her for awhile.

He wasn't having difficulty sleeping because he was on the floor. The truth was, that he could pretty much fall asleep anywhere. But, Sam was here, asleep, in his bed and all he could think about was the fact she was there.

It had hit him a few weeks ago, like a slap on the back of the head after a ghost fight. He'd tried to deny it up until then, not because it was horrifying, but it was scary, being in love with someone who you depended on so much.

He was beyond help now, he acknowledged as he watched Sam's steady breathing as his fingers itched to smooth the silken fall of her hair away from her face. He was afraid of waking her. How could he explain his behavior? Why was he watching her sleep? He wouldn't be able to answer without giving himself away.

Just when Danny's eyes began growing heavy with sleep and he started contemplating laying down, something changed. Sam's peaceful expression saddened and her forehead furrowed in distress. She whimpered sadly and a tear trickled from the corner of her eye.

Danny hesitated for a moment before reaching out to touch the tear, catching it before it dropped onto the pillow. He looked at his fingertip for a moment then frowned as a few more slid down her face, and dropped onto the pillow.

"Sam," he whispered softly as he put his hand on the side of her face, then sighed as he threaded his fingers through her hair. She pressed her cheek into his palm and his heart squeezed painfully as her voice hitched in a soft little sob.

"Don't cry," he told her softly as he began to stroke her hair. "I'd never let anything happen to you." He smiled softly as she sighed, seemingly comforted.

"You're my best friend," he continued as he took advantage of this rare moment to dote on the girl he'd fallen so deeply in love with, he didn't know how he managed to contain all the feelings he held for her. Sam sighed softly and murmured something unintelligible. Danny smiled as he traced the tears from her face.

"I wish I could tell you when you were awake," he began softly. "But I can't. I hope I can someday, but I don't see how." He traced down along her jaw line and sighed.

"I'll always protect you, Sam," he told her sleepily. "Because I love you so much. I really do wish I could tell you, but I can't"


	28. Heal

Heal

Maddie told Jack to wait in the kitchen as she calmly made her way upstairs to Danny's room. He was laying with his back to her and she hesitated a moment before walking through the door.

"Danny," she said gently, noting how he stiffened but didn't turn.

"I'm okay, Mom," he told her. "Don't worry about me."

"That cut is really deep," Maddie told her son gently, skirting around the issue of the ectoplasmic blood, which was still splattered on the kitchen floor. "You need to have it looked at."

"I'm fine," Danny told her as he buried his head beneath his pillow, as his stomach churned. "Please just leave me alone."

Maddie sat down on the bed. "Let me see your hand, Danny," she ordered firmly. Danny didn't move so she resorted to tapping his shoulder.

"Don't be a baby," she chided softly in the voice she used when he was younger and refused first aid because he was afraid of the sting of the antiseptic she used. "I'm not going to hurt you. I promise."

"Mom," Danny said calmly then took a deep breath. "I'm fine. It was just a little scratch."

"Mmm," Maddie agreed as she tapped his shoulder. Danny finally rolled over and looked into his mother's stern violet eyes.

"Can't we just forget about this?" he asked. "Pretend it didn't happen? Imagine you saw nothing?"

"Sorry, Danny," she answered as she patiently held out her hand. "No dice on that one. This is just something, as your mother, I cannot in good conscience ignore." 


	29. Night

Night

Danny woke up in a cold sweat then looked around his room warily. It was quiet. There were no ghosts. He sat up and ran his hands through his hair then threw his legs over the edge of the bed, then stood. He contemplated going downstairs for a snack, but decided a late night flight might clear his mind a little better than eating.

Floating above Amity Park in ghost mode was usually relaxing, but not tonight. Tonight his mind was on Sam. His mind was on her a lot, but tonight more so than usual. She hadn't been at school for a few days. She was sick. He missed her, but he'd resisted seeing her, at least up until tonight.

Danny flew a few laps around Sam's house before stopping in front of her window. He paused then poked his head through the curtains. He then eased his way the rest of the way into the room.

She was sprawled on the bed, her covers thrown to the floor. A glass of water was on the night stand, a book on the floor. Her hair was askew on her head and she was snoring lightly.

Danny couldn't help but smile as he picked up her covers, then settled them over her. She kicked them off almost instantly with a grumble as she rolled onto her side.

"I'm cold," she said then shivered as she curled into a ball. Danny replaced the covers and tucked them around her. He brushed his fingers across her cheek and frowned. She had a fever.

He pulled his hand away quickly as she stirred and his heart began to race in fear as her eyes opened slightly and she looked at him.

"You're back," Sam said sleepily as she closed her eyes. "I thought you left for good."

"I'd never leave you for good," Danny answered. Sam murmured sleepily then stretched out on her bed and allowed Danny to tuck her back under the covers.

"I love you," she told him as she cuddled down into her blankets. Danny's breath caught and he wished it could be sure she was actually talking to him. It wasn't much, but he could live with it for now, just knowing she loved him too could be enough.

"I love you too," he whispered. "Sweet dreams."

"Good night, Danny." Sam replied on a whisper. "See you tomorrow." Danny looked at her for a moment wondering if she was really asleep. He waited a moment then moved toward her and pried open one of her eyes. She didn't react, he was sure she was asleep.

He wasn't sure if he was relieved that she was sleeping or sad that she wasn't awake.

"Good night, Sam," he told her then went home.


	30. Questioning

Questioning

Danny watched his mother as he sat in the middle of a table, downstairs in the lab. She'd sent Jack up into the ops center, telling him that she had the situation under control. He resisted, but she hit on his weakness offering him fudge.

Maddie had her back to her son as she calibrated a testing device and Danny looked down at his hand as he cradled it in his lap. It hurt. It was healing, but like any wound, it hurt. He used the pain to excuse the tears that teetered on the edge of his lashes.

"Let me know if I hurt you," Maddie told her son sternly. Danny nodded his head as his mother lifted his hand from his lap and scanned it with the device.

Maddie shook her head. "Where is this ecto-signature coming from?" she asked, more to herself than to Danny. He said nothing as he watched her. She put the scanner down then fished a lancet out of her pocket. She looked at Danny.

"I'm all right," he said in answer to her questioning look. Maddie said nothing more as she examined the gash on Danny's hand, which had healed enough that it was a minor cut instead of a major gash.

Maddie took a deep breath as she poked the cut gently with the lancet, drawing back when Danny sucked in a hissing breath. "Explain this to me," she ordered softly. "The ectoplasmic blood, the healing wound. What happened to you Danny?"

"It was an accident in the lab," Danny started then paused as he looked up and met his mother's searching glance.

"A contamination?" she asked. "When?"

"When I was fourteen," Danny answered. "Last Summer…I…"

Maddie held up her hand to silence him. She frowned as she examined his fingers, and then quickly, without so much as a word, not giving Danny time to react, she pricked his finger with the lancet squeezed out several drops of blood and smeared it on a glass slide then walked over to the microscope in the corner. Danny said nothing as he put his finger to his mouth and shivered.

"We have to find a way to cleanse you of this impurity," Maddie told her son as she peered through the scope. Danny opened his mouth to say something but stopped, he didn't know what to tell her, or how to tell her what had really happened.

"Mom," Danny said. "What if…what if I'm not contaminated. What if…what if it's something else?"

Maddie pushed away from the microscope and looked at her son worriedly. "Like what Danny?"

"A ghost," he said softly. "What if something happened to me and I became a ghost…Or, or part ghost?"

"That's impossible, Sweetie," Maddie told him gently. "But if it's a ghost causing you this trouble, well we'll just have to remove it. Danny's eyes widened fearfully and Maddie turned back to the microscope.

Danny closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He contemplated running away, but that wouldn't solve much. He needed to talk to Tucker and Sam…and Jazz. He really needed Jazz.


	31. Breaking the Rules

I cannot read Spanish!

Breaking the Rules

Sam took a deep breath as she placed the ladder against the Fenton's house. She teetered slightly and hoped that she didn't fall. There was no way she would be able to explain why she was laying, broken bloody and possibly dead in the Fenton's yard at one in the morning.

Even though she'd been planning this stealth mission for over a week, she felt nervous and unprepared. She didn't know what she was going to do if Danny woke up suddenly because of a ghost attack. She had no excuse prepared. All Sam could do was hope everyone would stay in the ghost zone for the night.

"It would be so much easier if I was the one with the ghost powers," she muttered to herself as she jimmied the window open. She'd made sure it was unlocked before she left Danny's house earlier that evening, but the odds were good he would relock it. Why she didn't know, it was a Fenton thing she supposed.

The window slid open, and she winced as it squeaked. She wished she thought ahead and oiled the darned thing, but she was too busy being devious in other ways. Sam crawled through the window then held her breath and she looked at Danny, sleeping peacefully in his bed. She narrowed her eyes then bent down and slipped her boots off her feet. Sure, she knew how to be deadly silent wearing her combat boots, but she couldn't risk detection.

Danny was sound asleep, it would have taken a bomb going off, or a ghost attack to wake him, but Sam was scared. She couldn't go invisible if he suddenly woke, all she could do was duck, and she didn't figure hiding in the curtains or closet would work.

She sat on the edge of his bed very carefully and smiled. She was very aware of his twice weekly visits. Well, no she wasn't at first, at first she only suspected. It had taken up setting up a few hidden cameras to catch him.

The tape of him visiting her, took her breath away. He entered her room, covered her carefully then spent a good twenty to thirty minutes just doting on her. He smoothed his fingers through her hair and whispered words the microphone just wouldn't pick up. He traced her lips, kissed her forehead then left.

It had taken her longer than she wanted to admit to work out why he was visiting her while she slept. At first she reasoned out that maybe he was just checking on her, but he didn't visit Tucker and dote on him, so she concluded that his affection toward her went a little deeper than friendship, at least she hoped she was interpreting things right.

Sam swallowed hard then took a deep breath as she put her hand on Danny's face. She smiled at the stubbly facial hair on his chin. She knew he shaved, not often of course, because sometimes he'd have little razor nicks on his jaw or neck, it just never occurred to her that he had facial hair. It was strange, rough and gritty against her fingertip.

Danny sighed and she pulled her hand away then smiled as she moved his hair off his face. She traced his eyebrows, his nose, his jaw line and then his lips.

Sam's bit at her own lips as she traced his mouth, it was torture. She wanted more than anything to kiss him, to ease the need that was welling up from the pit of her stomach. She hesitated a moment then leaned forward. The bed didn't creak, and she was thankful, otherwise she would have quit the occupation her heart so desperately yearned for.

His lips were soft, warm and tasted slightly of mint, but they were also frustratingly unyielding. She didn't want to wake him up, but there she was, her mouth pressed against his, aching for a response, so she flicked her tongue out and traced it along his bottom lip, trying not to groan as he opened up to her, granting access to the velvety softness of the inside of his lip, the hardness of his teeth, the sweetness of his tongue.

Sam began to move away and he lifted his chin, his mouth seeking hers as his hand moved to the back of her head, drawing her back down to him for a longer, deeper much more fulfilling kiss.

She allowed herself to indulge in the sweetness of his mouth only a few short minutes more before shakily pulling away and looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to open his eyes, tell her he was awake. He was still asleep, but on his face he wore a peaceful, almost angelic smile.

Sam rose from the bed shakily. "It was just a dream," she whispered before putting on her boots, then climbing out the window. She had five more rungs to go when she slipped. She landed on her right foot, which collapsed beneath her then lay in the dewy grass for a moment, staring up at Danny's window breathlessly. She stood, put the ladder away, and limped home, smiling slightly, wondering what story she'd have to make up to explain her twisted ankle.


	32. Safety First

Safety First

"Safety first," Maddie said, mostly to herself as she slipped on the hood of her hazmat suit then adjusted her red goggles. She looked at Danny, who was laying on his back on the examination table.

"Are you comfortable?" she asked. Danny looked at his mother and was unsure what to say. No, he wasn't comfortable. He feared that she wouldn't care, that she would simply tighten the straps around his arms so that he couldn't escape, though he really could if he wanted to, and torture him to death, not that she could really do that either.

He opened his mouth several times in order to tell her what he really was, but he was scared. He was terrified that if he told her she was Danny Phantom, that she would try to remove his ghost half, and with that, the creation of his evil future self would be ensured.

"Mom?" he asked weakly.

"Yes, Sweetie," Maddie replied absently as she aimed what looked to be a large laser, right between Danny's eyes.

"Is this going to hurt?"

Maddie sighed. "I don't know, Sweetie."

"I-I'm supposed to meet Sam and Tucker…," Danny paused. "Maybe. Maybe it's all the ectoplasm you and Dad are always feeding us."

"Oh Danny," Maddie said as she readjusted the laser. "Ectoplasm doesn't work that way. No something else has happened and we need to figure out what it is."

"But, Mom," Danny started then shuddered as she pushed a button and the machine began to charge, the high pitched hum made him feel sick and dizzy. He began to shake, closing his eyes instead of looking at the point of the laser.

"Danny," Maddie said as she noticed Danny shaking. "This isn't going to hurt you, I promise."

"How can you be sure?" he asked a frightened tear rolling from the corner of his eye. He could feel his insides quivering, but he couldn't bring himself to run from his mother.

"Look," Maddie said as she moved the laser from Danny's face. He sighed in relief as she aimed it at her hand. The green light shined on her palm and that was all. "All it does is reads the ecto-signature your giving off and looks for the source. It won't hurt you."

"But isn't it a good thing?" Danny asked as his worked his hand out of the strap holding him to the table. "It's almost healed. That's a good thing right?"

Maddie bit her lip as she looked at her son then sighed. "Danny," she said softly. "This isn't normal. I'm frightened of what it could do to you in the future. We need to take care of it now."

"But," Danny started and Maddie silenced him. She replaced the laser without a word then pushed the button.

The pain coursing through Danny was so intense that he felt like transforming to ease the pain, but he fought hard to keep his secret hidden. He would let his mother poke and prod but her realized, he could never tell her what he really was. He had to put the world's safety first.


	33. Dark

Dark

Jazz was a perfectionist. She knew she was smart. She knew she was going to be successful. She had her future planned to the smallest detail, yet allowed for variables so not to upset the delicate balance of her life.

Her plans were like intricate calculations, carefully measured and tested in theory. There were few surprises, few things to throw her off balance. She liked life that way. Predictable and sane, different than her parents. More than anything, she wanted to be different than her parents.

Jazz was also a Fenton, with which came little strange personality quirks and obsessions. She felt that hers were reasonable. She was intellectual and reasonable, and then Danny happened, or more specifically Danny's accident in the ghost portal which gave him ghost powers.

She prided herself on her quick thinking and adaptability, yes she frowned on her parent's ghost hunting craziness, but she cared about her brother more, and through him, learned that several of her parent's hypothesizes were flakier than she'd first thought.

Ghosts were smarter, quicker, more dangerous than anything they could imagine. The world those ghosts came from was strange and frightening.

Everything she had believed as firm fact, that her parents were insane and she wasn't, was tipped on its side. She learned that it wasn't just people, but the world itself was unstable!

She put aside her sensibilities. She put aside her distaste of the ghost hunting insanity which ran in her blood, and she embraced it. She adjusted her interests, though only slightly, so she could be of use to her brother. Practicing self defense, always being on alert, studying and studying and feeling very insecure.

The truth was, Danny didn't need her. Oh yes occasionally she was good for hiding his secret, coming to the rescue with plausible explanations, but he didn't need her. He had Tucker and Sam and she was in the way. She was a silent partner of Team Phantom, forced to be content to watch from the sidelines with an increasingly troubled heart.

She was alone. She loved books, but they didn't love her back. She loved her parents but they had a very tenuous grasp on reality. She loved her brother, but he didn't need her to interfere with his life, and so Jazz was alone.

Somehow, the things which had mattered most to her, getting out of Amity Park, away from her parents ghost obsession, and having a normal life of her own, became unimportant.

Jazz had prided herself on being well adjusted, and she didn't know how to readjust. She would think that she was back on track and then there would be a ghost attack, or she would walk in on her brother and his friends during study sessions and the feelings of being unsettled and lonely would shroud her in darkness.

And so, she often found herself sitting in the dark, in her room. Crying her eyes out. She was…alone.


	34. Hero

Hero

Tucker adjusted his glasses, patted the PDA in his left pocket and made sure his IPod was firmly in place as he started up the stairs to Danny's room. He was in a good mood, well he was always in a good mood. He had very little to complain about and really, Tucker didn't allow much to get him down. He lived his life on the sunny side of the street.

Sam said his heart was filled with helium, and it was true to an extent, it was hard to bring Tucker down, and keep him there, but the sounds he heard while passing Jazz's room, put a rock on his light heart.

Jazz's light sobbing was something he'd been hearing more of in the last few months and he was worried. Danny shrugged it off, saying, "She's a girl! She's my sister! She's an alien." Sam shrugged it off, saying, "Yeah some girls cry I guess."

Danny's excuse for failing to realize something was wrong with Jazz was pure cluelessness. He saw his sister as unshakable and figured she was probably indulging in some new sort of therapy. He told Tucker that Jazz was strong, well adjusted, happy, not to worry.

Sam was simply at a loss. When Tucker brought the situation to her attention she got angry, but the truth was she didn't know how to approach Jazz. Sam wouldn't have appreciated people meddling in her affairs, therefore she considered it common courtesy to let Jazz deal with whatever her problem was, as she saw fit.

Tucker was troubled. It wasn't as though he always heard her crying, but the fact that he had, on several occasions heard her heart broken sobs, or caught her tear stained face as she ran from the bathroom to her room, or emerged from the Casper High library looking pale and sad, weighed down his mirthful heart and made his time at Danny's house uncomfortable because all he could think of, was she was hurting, and no one bothered to see if she was okay, they just assumed, because she was Jazz that she was fine.

So, Tucker stood outside Jazz's bedroom door debating on his next move. He had to do something. He couldn't let things go on any longer, and so he built up his courage and he knocked. The crying stopped and there was silence.

"Who is it?" came Jazz's voice, soft and uncertain.

Tucker swallowed hard then squeaked. He had to clear his throat so he could answer firmly, "It's Tucker. Can I…Can I come in?" He was met with silence. He grabbed his hat off his head and clutched it has he waited. Just as he was sure she wasn't going to answer, the door opened and he looked into the clear and beautiful red rimed eyes of Jazz Fenton.

"What do you need?" she asked softly.

Tucker was stunned. He was like a rabbit staring up at the hawk who was about to swoop down and eat him. "I-I-I," he stammered. "I heard you crying and um, are you okay?"

Jazz lowered her eyes to the floor and she shrugged her shoulder. "I didn't know anyone could hear. I'm sorry. Did I disturb you?" Tucker gave her a strange look and shook his head.

Jazz looked up at him and the look of disbelief on his face. "I'll try to be more quiet in the future." She started to close the door and Tucker stopped her.

"No," he said loudly and she gave him a startled look. "You didn't disturb me, well, yeah you did, but not like that." He took a deep breath. "Are you okay?"

Jazz bit her lip as she looked at Tucker thoughtfully. He continued to hold her gaze unflinchingly, but she could practically see him shaking in fear. She smiled slightly. "I will be," she finally answered.

Tucker closed his eyes. "D-do you want to talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" Jazz asked and suddenly Tucker felt stupid and small as he dared to open his eyes and look at her. Who did he think he was, attempting to comfort this beautiful, sophisticated and strong creature? He felt like nothing before her, like the joke people often made of him.

"What's bothering you," Tucker answered as he flicked his gaze from her face to the floor, preparing for rejection or derision filled laughter.

Jazz looked at him thoughtfully for a moment then stepped back and opened her bedroom door.


	35. Seeking Solace

Seeking Solace

Comfort, could be found in the oddest places, Jazz realized as she took that comfort in the form of Danny's best friend Tucker. She would have never expected, not in million years to become friends with the techno geek. But they were friends, good friends.

Jazz loved Tucker's outlook on life. He was funny, he talked too much, he had some strange ideas about girls and was completely absorbed in technology, but Jazz could understand him, and she found solace in his cheery disposition.

Though she never confided in him that she felt left out and though she did her best to establish herself as the elder and the wiser in the relationship, she still held him at a certain level of awe and respect and yes, love. She loved him more than she was willing to admit, even to herself.

Tucker was who she ran to for comfort, when she felt small, lonely, left out and confused. She often called him late at night, just to talk. She rarely shared the burdens of her heart, which frustrated a very vocal Tucker to no end.

"You should just tell me what's bothering you," he would tell her in exasperation, then tell her it was two in the morning, which was a little late or early to be crying over the telephone.

Jazz would then laugh through watery tears and tell him that she just couldn't put to words what was bothering her and thank him for making her feel better. He would increasingly express frustration of not knowing how he was helpful and she would tell him by being himself.

Her tears ceased being about loneliness, about confusion, about feeling left out or finding her footing. Her tears were now for Tucker and the fact that there was no way she could ever tell him of her feelings.

Jazz could admit to herself that Tucker made her feel good. He made her happy. He was what she wanted to be. Well adjusted and happy, even if he was a little goofy. To her he was like sunlight and she basked in that light and warmth and wished she could get closer and cried over loving her little brother's techno geek best friend. What would people say?

"You know better than to care what people think," Tucker told her one sunny afternoon as they sat in the park. He was leaning against a tree playing with his PDA while she was laying on her back looking up at the sky.

"Yeah," Jazz said. "I know that in theory. But if I tell him..this guy I like, that I like him and he doesn't feel the same way or he laughs at me…then what?"

"Then he's an idiot," Tucker told her as he put down his PDA and looked at her. "Because anyone who turns you away, is an idiot."

Jazz sighed as she rolled onto her stomach and looked at Tucker who was looking at his PDA with a troubled frown. "That's the problem," she replied. "Is he's not an idiot. He's wonderful. He's the most wonderful person I know."

"Well then tell him and not me!" Tucker said shortly. "I don't want to hear it. Tell him!" Jazz gave him a shocked look and he sighed. "Just do something about it Jazz. I'm getting tired of this. First, I have to watch Danny and Sam dance around each other skirting the issue of their feelings, and now I have to watch you pinning yourself to death over some jerk. Be fair to me!"

"Fair to you?" Jazz asked as she sat up. "Fair to you how? I thought you were my friend!!"

Tucker sighed, "I am you friend. I just don't want to see you hurt." He looked from her face to his PDA. "I don't want to have to pick up the pieces either and.."

"Well sorry to be such a burden," Jazz growled as she grabbed her books and started shoving them into her back pack, her eyes filling with tears.

"Don't be stupid," Tucker said as he grabbed Jazz's arm to stop her. "You're not a burden. It's just.." he paused.

"Just what?" Jazz asked, her heart doing triple flips in her chest as Tucker's hand slid down her arm then to her hand where he twined her fingers in his. His eyes held hers for so long that she thought maybe, maybe he was going to kiss her. She swallowed hard and watched and waited breathlessly, but finally the light fled from his expression and he let her go.

"It's just that…" he began as he let go of her hand. "I'm sorry. You do what you need to do and if you need a friend. I'm here. I'll always be here for you, Jazz."

"Thanks Tuck," Jazz told him them moved forward and kissed his cheek. "I love you." She grabbed her bag and fled leaving Tucker to sigh as he watched her go.

"I love you too," he answered wistfully.


	36. Last Hope

Inspired by and for Mystitat.

Last Hope

Jazz was angry. She was being manipulated by Vlad. She had no idea why he wanted her to go to Wisconsin State, and it wasn't like she had anything against the college, she simply didn't want to go there, especially if Vlad was pushing her toward the school for some reason.

She looked at the envelope in her hand and sighed, not knowing why she was holding on to the rejection letter from Stanford. She didn't even have to open it to know. It was a rejection letter.

"Damn Vlad!" She growled as she paced in her room then sat down and looked at the envelope in her hand. She sighed then ripped it open.

It contained two pieces of paper and she blinked, then smiled as she read the words, "Dear Jasmine Fenton, Congratulations on your acceptance…." That was all she needed. She jumped up and ran to her bedroom door yelling.

"Danny!" she yelled. "Mom! Dad! I got in! I'm going to Stanford!!!" She clutched the letter to her chest as she walked back into her room. She could hear them running up the stairs.

"Screw you Vlad!" she hissed under her breath then smiled again.

He stood floating outside her window, smiling evilly. "Fentons," he thought. "So easily manipulated!" He disappeared in a puff of magenta smoke. He had reasons for wanting Jazz in Stanford. Wisconsin State, Madison would have been better, but Stanford fit into his evil plans, just fine.


	37. Waiting

**I've not been working on as much DP lately, mostly because I'm dabbling in some semi-original fics. Check my profile for details! Come read my semi-original works…I say semi-original, because it's a collaborative effort of sorts!**

Waiting

Danny paced back and forth in his room, staring occasionally at the cell phone on his dresser, then looking down at his feet, taking a deep breath, then pacing. He'd been doing the same thing all afternoon. Pacing and waiting.

"Why don't you just call her?" Jazz said as she leaned in the open door way then took a bite of apple.

"I can't," Danny said as he rubbed the back of his neck in irritation. "I told her I'd wait, so that's what I'm doing. I'm waiting."

"You told her you'd wait until she got back," Jazz replied after swallowing another bite of apple. "She's back. You should call her."

"No," Danny growled impatiently. "I told her I'd wait."

Finally the phone rang, Danny attacked it and Jazz rolled her eyes. She watched her brother talk breathlessly to Sam, a flush glowing on his cheeks as his eyes turned all soft and dreamy.

"I've missed you," Danny said softly, looking at Jazz for a moment then turning to hide the goofy smile on his face. "I'm so glad your back, I want to spend the rest of what we have left of summer together."

"Yeah, cause it's not like you're going to college together or anything," Jazz snarked. Danny turned and gave her an annoyed look then pointed out the door. She smiled and stayed.

Suddenly Danny's face went white and he opened his mouth. His eyes flew to meet Jazz's questioning gaze.

"You what?" Danny asked the phone softly, his love filled expression falling from his face as he dropped to his knees. "Wait!" he then yelled. "Don't hang up. Wait!"

The End

**I suppose you want to know what Sam said. A bribe is in order. See the above A/N note XD My muse needs reviews.**


	38. Innocence

Innocence

Tucker watched sadly as Danny paced outside Sam's front door. Sam had locked herself up and refused to see him. She refused to see Tucker too. Danny had sent in the big guns, her sister to try to reason with Sam, but just like Danny and Tucker she was turned away at the door by Mrs. Manson.

"Boys," Mrs. Manson said as she opened the door. She took the moment to stare Danny down, leveling him with a look of angery mixed with hatred, layered heavily over a smug expression. "If you don't leave now, I'll be forced to call the police. How can I get it through your head that Samantha does not want to see you?"

"Please, Mrs. Manson…Please," Danny begged as she started to close the door. "Just tell us what happened. I just want to know what happened."

Sam's mother stopped, pushed the door open and looked at Danny with cold blue eyes. "You, more than anyone should know what you've done, Mr. Fenton. After all you were the one going around Sam's back with all those girls." She tilted her head to the side as she smiled. "I'm really glad it happened this way, that my Samantha saw your true colors before she got too…caught up with you."

"What?" Danny asked in shock then looked at Tucker who was looking at Danny with his hand on his mouth. "What girls?"

Mrs. Manson shook her head. "We have pictures, Danny," She said her voice dripping with deadly venom. "Very good, very well doctored pictures." She smiled grimly. "You'll never convince Samantha of your innocence. I suggest you let her go so she can move on with her life. She's done with you, cheater." She looked at Tucker then back at Danny grinned then slammed the door in their faces.


	39. Vacation

Vacation

"Like sands through the hour glass, so are the days of our lives," the man on the television said, imparting his cliched wisdom. The man in the lawn chair shook his head then grabbed his purple drink with the green umbrella poking out the top and took along sip to keep from gaging at the statement.

"Time moves for no man," the commercial stated and the man put down his drink with force and shut the television off. He hissed in irritation as he lay back in his chair and closed his eyes, taking in the sound of the ocean as it lapped the sand.

"Time is of the essence!" he heard a man's voice proclaim.

Clockwork, Master of Time sat up and growled as he looked at the business man in Bermuda shorts crossing the sand. "Stop!" he growled as he grabbed his staff from beneath his chair….and then everything, just stopped. He looked around in satisfaction then sighed happily at silence.

Even the Master of Time needs to take a time out every now and again.


	40. Magic

Magic

It was coiled underneath her bed, waiting for the right moment to activate. It would then unwind itself from the spot where it's master had placed it, oh so many years ago, slither from beneath the bed, over the worn out faux leather boots, the photo albums and dusty discarded novels, up beneath her covers, where it would strike.

It could barely wait to sink its teeth into her flesh, wind its way through her blood and take over her being. It was a dark and ancient curse, too strong to be broken. It was an infection of the heart, and it would change her. It would suck out her hope, her dreams, her very soul and replace them with its own. She would become a changling.

It would become her, living her life, destroying her friends, her family. It would be a deep foggy depression, squeezing out every last drop of vibrancy and color from her existance.

It slipped beneath red silken sheets, smiling ferally. It was pleased. It's moment had finally come. It met the arch of her foot and inhaled the clean pure scent of her. It wound itself up her leg, taking utter enjoyment in her warm skin which was far more delicious feeling than the most expensive or luxurious silk.

She was like a summer night, it decided as it continued its progress up her body. She was dark and velveety like the sky at midnight, and yet her skin was pale and luminous like the moon. It wanted her, to be her, to torture her, to feed on her and finally discard the shrunken shell.

It poked itself out from beneath the blankets, taking a deep breath before it plunged it's teeth into her neck, beginning it's work. It opened its eyes then gaped and gave a shreik of horror as it met feirce, angry green glowing eyes.

"Protected!" it blared in alarm. She was protected! When? Where? How?

"You better believe she's protected," Danny growled. Faced with the spirit protecting Sam, the spell disappated into a cloud of noxious fumes.

"Damn, black magic," Danny hissed then gave Sam a loving look, kissed her forehead and left her sleeping. He'd tell her in the morning, about the magic that woke him from his sleep and sent him to protect her. It told him he posessed the most powerful magic of all, the best to defeat ancient dark spells. The magic? Love.


	41. Can You Hear Me?

Can You Hear Me

"Samantha!" She yelled up the stairs to her daughter. "It's time to come down to dinner. Can you hear me?"

Sam looked at the door a moment then zipped up her black vinyl boots. She smoothed her shiny vinyl skirt down her hips, adjusted her bustier, checked the dark eyeliner around her eyes and sighed.

"I hate this," she growled as she pulled on a sheer white button down shirt and tied it around her mid-drift. "I look like a prostitute."

She fluffed her wildly curled hair then smoothed a tube of blood red lipstick over her mouth. She pressed her lips together, fluffed her hair again then walked out of her room.

"Saman…" her mother yelled up the stairs again, stopping mid yell as Sam, dressed in all her black vinyl short mini skirted glory made her appearance.

"Why are you dressed like a cheap whore?" her mother asked acidly. Sam didn't respond. She kept walking.

"Answer me young lady!" Sam grabbed her purse from near the door and took a deep breath.

"Can you hear me?" Pamela Manson screamed. "Where are you going?" Sam said nothing and made no indication that she was at all aware of her mother as she calmly let the door close behind her.


End file.
